Porn shown in 4th grade clasroom, teacher not blamed this time

Another incident of porn in the classroom popped up this week in Virginia, but …

Fourth graders in Bedford County, Virginia were accidentally exposed to "hardcore pornography" in the classroom this week, but parents and the administration are reacting very differently than in another recent classroom porn case. A teacher was showing an educational video about tessellations to her fourth grade class when the video ended, the credits rolled, and then pornography came up on the screen. The teacher of the 20-student class "sprinted" across the room to turn it off, according to Bedford County schools spokesperson Ryan Edwards, but by that time, the students had already seen several seconds of the illicit video. "The children and the teacher were completely shocked," Edwards told the Arizona Republic.

The district, however, is not holding the teacher responsible for the incident. Instead, they are trying to determine how the porn got onto the tape in the first place.

This reaction comes in stark contrast to another incident in which children were accidentally exposed to pornographic images in the classroom. Connecticut substitute teacher Julie Amero was convicted for not doing enough to prevent her students from seeing pornographic pop-ups on a classroom PC earlier this year and faced up to 40 years in prison. The school admitted that the computer was not up to date with its virus and malware protections, but that didn't stop it from accusing Amero of intentionally showing the students porn. A local "computer expert" even testified that the browser's history indicated that Amero intentionally clicked on links to pornographic web sites. Luckily for Amero, computer forensics performed after her conviction contradicted the testimony of the "expert," and she was granted a new trial this week.

The tape was in possession of the school for four years, according to Edwards, but no one had ever played it that far past the credits before. It was produced by Teachers Video Co., formerly of Scottsdale, AZ, but the company claims that the master copy of the film does not contain the pornographic clips. They and the school suspect that the duplication facility that generated copies of the tape is responsible, probably by reusing old pornographic tapes without having fully erased them. Teachers Video's parent company, School Specialty, has apologized to the school district.